ASTR 1270

I just took this class for the Math/Science requirement, but wish I didn't. The grading for this class is new and weird and hard to understand. Basically need to average 75% and above for all the tests to pass the class and THEN the essays and stuff determine your actually letter grade. (???) A LOT of reading and quite confusing lecture (for someone who knows nothing about astronomy). The tests are scientific so details from the readings are required. She's also very specific about how the essays should be written.

Dr. Costa is a great professor and I loved this class, but do not take it if you're not at least somewhat interested in physics. It gets very theoretical and you won't understand anything unless you thoroughly read the books, which are advanced and a bit time-consuming. HOWEVER... the grading system for this class is absolutely ridiculous. It seems easy at first because the tests are essentially pass/fail (pass is over 75%), BUT in order to get an A in the class, you also have to get an A on both essays and her grading is harsh. I got an A on every single assignment in the class and a B on the second essay, so I got a B in the class. How is that fair grading?

My review of this class is probably going to be slightly unique because I am an astronomy minor and I knew like 75% of the material coming into the class. Ok so, this class was good but it should have been great. This was Costa's first time teaching, and shes kind of an idiot. She didn't know the material well, and she made multiple really clear errors on the slides, not counting her poor spelling and grammar which made some slides and test questions difficult to understand. Costa tries to teach a little about theoretical physics, but really knows nothing about it besides what she read from the books that she assigns us to read. TBH I didnt open the books once all semester or do any readings (theres a ton of reading she assigns), but thats probably not recommended unless you have a very good understanding of astronomy coming into this class. The material itself is mostly very interesting, and I like how the class layout is: there are 10-12 groups of 10 people or so. I spent most classes chatting with my table and trying to teach them the material because no one was getting much from Costa's lectures. I understand its Costa's first time teaching, but its kind of unacceptable in my opinion to not know the material you're teaching. Also, her grading scheme is actually dumb, you need to average above a 75 on the 4 tests just to pass the class, then do a 300 word blog every week just to unlock the ability to get an A, then you need an A on both essays to get an A in the class. The essays are just her silly way of showing that we did the readings, but she doesnt know how to write very well. I knew the material arguably as well as she did and averaged like 120% on the tests without studying or reading at all and still didnt get an A in the class. Costa is a nice person but shes kind of an idiot and probably shouldn't be teaching this class. I know i spent most of this review pooping on Costa, but with all that being said, this was probably my favorite class during the semester that I took it, but that was more because of the group-discussion nature of the class and because the class material was very interesting (it was just presented and taught very poorly). She made this class much too difficult and assigned way too much work for an introductory level astronomy class (most people in the class had never taken an astronomy course before and were lost the entire semester). I want to give this class a glowing recommendation because it is such an incredibly cool idea for a class, but I have a hard time doing so. Again, I enjoyed this class and I would say that you should take it because the material is so interesting, but I just really wish it was taught by someone else (Kelsey Johnson used to teach this class and she was amazing).

***This is NOT an easy-A science requirement*** . Professor Costa is absolutely unnecessarily harsh with grading on essays (which I was not happy to have in a science class to begin with), considering she is an ASTR teacher and also gives little to no guidance on how she wants the essays to look. The quizzes were not horrible, but even they were sometimes confusing and annoying. There were also really weird and long discussion posts and comments we were supposed to do weekly. I just wouldn't really recommend this professor, even though she is nice, because she doesn't seem to understand its a 1000 level course and not something people are really taking because they're aspiring physicists. It was not very enjoyable, and annoying that it wasn't an easy A. But, if you are an astronomy person or physics major then you would probably like it! Super theoretical, but didn't really learn much of anything except a few memorized facts. I wouldn't take it again, but it was probably easier than any alternative science class offered when I took it.